Human antibiotic consumption globally jumped dramatically between 2000 and 2015, with India posting the biggest rise, reports a new US study, which calls for a radical policy rethink to prevent antimicrobial drug resistance soaring.

Indian vaccine research organization Hilleman Laboratories says it is hoping to get its "new design", cheaper cholera vaccine licensed in Bangladesh this year and that the next step will be to seek to make it available to UN agencies amid remaining global inoculation need.

State-owned Indian Immunologicals Ltd., one of the local companies aiming to challenge the dominance of multinationals in the domestic Indian vaccine market, has come up with a low-priced five-in-one jab for children that the government is including in its massive national immunization program.

Public health campaigners in India and globally are pushing the government to allow Indian generic firms to make cheap copies of two new-generation, last resort antibiotics for drug-resistant tuberculosis through the use of patent-busting compulsory licenses. 

Zydus Cadila is teaming up with Canada’s Medicure Inc to launch cholesterol control medication Zypitamag, its first branded drug in the key US market, as the Indian firm drives ahead with a strategy of diversifying from low-priced generics.